The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Renewable Electricity Futures Study demonstrates that it is feasible to supply 80 percent of America’s power from renewable resources in 2050. Although the nation’s electricity system is already moving in this direction with increasing levels of wind and solar energy, the transformation is far from guaranteed. America’s Power Plan builds on NREL’s technical study to provide a policy toolkit for managing the country’s transition to a cleaner energy future. More than 150 experts, including RAP’s Mike Hogan, contributed to the eight reports that comprise America’s Power Plan. Policy recommendations address utility business models, transmission and grid operations, finance policy, wholesale market design, siting of new energy infrastructure, distributed generation, and distributed resource integration.

Wholesale markets in particular will play a key role in driving investment in the flexible resources needed to ensure reliability as the share of intermittent renewable resources grows. In Power Markets: Aligning Power Markets to Deliver Value, Mr. Hogan identifies three areas where power markets can adapt to enable an affordable, reliable transition to a power system with a large share of renewable energy.  These are a) recognize the value of energy efficiency, b) upgrade grid operations to unlock flexibility in the short-term, and c) upgrade investment incentives to unlock flexibility in the long-term.  RAP’s What Lies Beyond Capacity Markets? offers detailed recommendations for shifting flexibility decisions from an operational time-scale to an investment one.

Mr. Hogan will preview the report during a webinar (America’s Power Plan – Wholesale Market Design and Distributed Generation) on Wednesday, October 2 at 1pm EDT.